As of Tuesday, day 1,533 of the Iraq War…

• $429.9 billion in taxpayer funds have been spent on the war, enough to provide a year of health insurance to 257.4 million children.

Since the last Count…

• 18 more American soldiers have been reported killed.

• 472 more Iraqi civilians have been reported killed.

• 20 is the minimum number of people killed in a car bombing near an important Sunni mosque in Baghdad on Monday, reported BBC News.

• 7 soldiers and 1 Marine were killed in violence on Saturday, the US military announced, according to the Associated Press.

• 104 US service people were killed in April, “the worst month this year for the American military since the invasion,” the International Herald Tribune reported Friday. 103 US service people had been killed in May as of Sunday, according to Reuters.

• 980 US troops died in Iraq between Memorial Day 2006 and Saturday, reported AP.

• 42 imprisoned Iraqis were freed from an al-Qaeda hideaway by US troops on Sunday, according to AP.

• 53 multiple-fatality bombings were carried out in April, The Brookings Institute reported in May.

QUOTE: “There is hardly anybody in America left … who doesn\’t believe that it was a terrible mistake to invade a country that didn’t attack us,” former US vice-president Al Gore told ABC last week.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan…

• 386 American soldiers have been reported killed.*

• 1,250 soldiers have been reported wounded in action.*

• 4 people, including a police officer, were killed and 7 were injured in two separate attacks last Wednesday, according to The New York Times.

And back home…

• $95 billion for the military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was approved by the Democrat-controlled Congress on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. No deadline was set for troop withdrawal.

• 63 percent of Americans questioned in a poll conducted by CBS News and The New York Times between May 18 and May 23 stated that they disapproved of President Bush’s presidency.

–Information compiled by Jon Lewis-Katz from reports by Iraq Body Count and the National Priorities Project, unless otherwise noted.

Since the last Count…

• 15 US soldiers were killed in bombings, fighting with insurgents and other violence over the weekend, reported CNN.

• 25 people were killed and at least 60 were injured when a bomb exploded near a market in Baghdad on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

• 60 people were killed in violence last Thursday, reported the Washington Post.

• 2,890 Iraqi civilians died violently in April, according to The Brookings Institute.

• 20 is the percent by which civilian casualties dropped in April compared with March, reported Reuters.

• 70 is the percent by which violence in the Diyala province increased over five months, according to a mid-April report by The Brookings Institute.

QUOTE: “It can be argued that Iraq is on the verge of being a failed state which faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation,” members of a British think tank wrote in a study released last Thursday, reported the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan…

• 387 American soldiers have been reported killed.

• 1,250 soldiers have been reported wounded in action.

• 14 people were killed and more than 24 were injured in a Taliban-claimed suicide bombing in a market on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

And in Palestine and Israel…

• 45 Palestinians have died in Hamas-Fatah fighting since last Sunday, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

• 8 Palestinians, including 6 relatives of a Hamas lawmaker and the lawmaker’s wife, were killed and more than 12 were injured in an Israeli air attack on the lawmaker’s house on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

• 40 or more Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since last week, according to a Tuesday report by AP.

• 150 rockets were launched into Israel by Palestinians over a week, the Israeli military stated, AP also reported Tuesday.

~THE COUNT~

As of Tuesday, day 1,519 of the Iraq War…

• 3,401 American service members have been reported killed, according to CNN.

• 25,245 soldiers have been reported wounded.*

• 63,744 is the minimum number of civilians killed in Iraq.

• $425.9 billion in taxpayer funds have been spent on the war, enough to provide 255 million children with one year of health insurance.

Since the last Count…

• 24 more American service members have been reported killed.

• 802 more Iraqi civilians have been reported killed

• 3 American soldiers in a unit assigned to intercept roadside bombs went missing Saturday during an ambush in which 4 other soldiers were killed, Reuters reported. Al Qaeda has issued a warning that a massive search for the missing soldiers by the military would put the kidnapped troops’ safety at risk.

• $10,000 in prize money was awarded to Colby Buzzell, a former American machine gunner in Iraq, for his blog-turned-book “My War: Killing Time in Iraq,” reported The Guardian UK. The Lulu Blooker prize announcement came as US officials announced new rules restricting blog use among soldiers.

• 974 of the American service members killed in Iraq before March 25 were age 22 or younger, according to CNN.

• 82 troops, on average, have died in each month of 2007, CNN statistics also show.

• 44 percent of all violent civilian deaths in Iraq occurred in the 12 months from March 2006 to March 2007, reports an IraqBodyCount.net press release. Compared to the previous yearlong period, mortar attacks that killed civilians quadrupled from 73 to 289, bomb blasts that killed more than 50 people jumped from 9 to 17, and fatal suicide, car or roadside bombings doubled from 712 to 1,476.

• At least 536 Iraqi civilian deaths between March 2006 and March 2007 — about 3 per week — were identified as having been caused by Coalition forces, according to that release.

• 1 in 160 of Baghdad’s once 6.5 million residents has been violently killed since the beginning of the war, Iraq Body Count also reported.

Since the last Count…

• 63 people were killed in a suicide car bombing on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

• 30 people were killed and another 60 were wounded in a suicide bombing at a funeral on Monday, reported Al Jazeera.

• 9 US service people were killed late last week and this weekend, including 3 killed on Saturday, the US military announced, according to AP.

• 100 or more US troops died in April, AP also reported.

• 192 multiple-fatality bombings have occurred in Iraq since January, according to the Brookings Institution.

• 40,000 is the approximate number of Iraqis displaced by the war every month, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

• 7 journalists have been killed in Iraq this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

• 28,829 US service people have been committed to the troop surge announced by President Bush in January, the Brookings Institution reported last Thursday.

• 51 of 97 senators, a majority, voted to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq last Thursday, reported Reuters.

QUOTE: “America\’s general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq’s government and security forces and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq,” according to an article published Friday by an active duty US Army officer.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan…

• 381 American soldiers have been reported killed.

• 1,203 soldiers have been reported wounded in action.

• 6 civilians were killed and 2 children were wounded when US and Afghan troops raided a suspected insurgent hideout on Sunday, according to The New York Times.

COUNTDOWN: 629 days remain in President Bush’s final term in office, according to BackwardsBush.com.